Robin Rothfield on the question of UN bias

The Editor
Just Voices
Dear Keren
I am writing to comment on Just Voices – Issue #7 of November 2015.
I enjoyed reading your own contribution “Revisiting Israel –what’s changed” in which you relate your everyday experiences of interrelating with family, neighbours, shoppers and strangers.
I found Sol Salbe’s review of the book “Boycotting Israel is wrong” by Mendes and Dyrenfurth has some interesting points but challenging for one who has not read the book.
But I have a concern with Leah Goldman’s article “Why Israel? A look at Israel and UN bias.” In the first place there was no CV given. Who is Leah Goldman? Googling I find there are several Leah Goldmans but my guess is that she is a is a doctoral candidate of history at the University of Chicago. On the substance of the article I refer to the description “remains very fresh for the victims who were displaced by the colonial forces establishing the State of Israel.”Britain was the colonial power prior to 1948 and they closed the gates of Palestine for the duration of the war stranding hundreds of thousands of Jews in Europe. And after the war Britain refused to allow the survivors of the Nightmare to find sanctuary in Palestine. Some Jews were able to reach Palestine, many by way of dilapidated ships smuggled in by Jewish resistance organizations. In August 1946 however the British began to intern in Cyprus those illegal immigrants they caught.
And Britain abstained from the vote in the United Nations on the partition of Palestine.
Leah Goldman spends most of the article discussing alleged bias against Israel of UN resolutions in recent years. She makes the valid point that Israel has failed to abide by these resolutions. Goldman also concedes that it has been established that Israel is subject to a disproportionate number of UN resolutions. Given the heading of the article I have concerns that the concluding sentence focusses on Israel rather than on UN bias.

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